Suddenly, skydiving doesn't seem so scary...

I'm almost 42 years old and I have done a lot of things in my life. Over the past few years I have even pressed the percieved bounds of my own inhibitions to try some pretty cool stuff. Besides whitewater rafting (which I didn't blink an eye at), I have (seemingly) shaken my fear of flying and heights are no longer the terrifying to me and I now love rollercoasters.

Now I have another life experience to contemplate as I grow older. Another thing that as I was doing it I wonder if I was going to die.

It seemed simple enough, my son and some friends wanted to go see "Three Days Grace" in concert at the Speed Street 600 Festival in downtown Charlotte. I like their music and thought it would be fun. It was, but I had no idea...

It wasn't until we actually arrived at the stage area and we started to make our way towards the stage that the first "pangs" of wonder started to appear in my head. The kids wanted to get close to the stage while the act before Three Days Grace was playing, so we started that way. We ended up about 15 feet away from the stage...CENTER stage. I really started to wonder when my son said to me "we may not be able to stay here". Huh?

What I saw all around me for the next 2 1/2 hours was hard to believe. I knew about this stuff, but never thought I would actually see it up close. I'm honestly shocked that no one was killed or severly injured. When you "surf" the easy part is getting up and getting passed around (I didn't DO this but saw a lot of it) it's when you fall...about 7 feet straight down, usually on your head.

When the band started playing and the crowd behind us started surging (actually, shoving) their way forward I thought we would be crushed. Luckily, between me and few other big guys we held them back long enough for them to loose interest in it.

I've been to a lot of concerts, but this is REALLY loud. It was still fun, very exhilarating and a bit scary at moments. In the end I was soaked in sweat and my ears were ringing for about two days. But I was glad that I went.